


flush him out

by howisthataparty



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Brainwashing, Clint Needs a Hug, F/M, Nightmares, Post-Avengers (2012), afteraffects, are they together or aren't they, at least some of the time, clint and natasha live together, natasha wants to be sweet but is having trouble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 13:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2070549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howisthataparty/pseuds/howisthataparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha hears Clint in the middle of a nightmare and tries her best to assure him that Loki has no hold anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	flush him out

  
”Heeeello…”

No answer. Natasha stalked around the door and shut it quietly, listening to the apartment and its noises. There weren’t any irregular ones to speak of, save the muffled hints that Clint might be passed out on the couch. Natasha just smirked in silent reply before hanging up her jacket and making a beeline for the kitchen. Making dinner took a few swings of the refrigerator door and that was done. (Not that she ate like a bird,  _at all_.)

Cleaning the small kitchen cost Natasha all of five minutes, but for lack of anything better to do, she busied herself looking for stains on the counters and scrubbing them away. All seemed to be going well until several strangled gasps yanked her attention from the counter to the couch.

”Clint?” In a moment she’d dropped her washcloth and resisted the urge to vault  _over_  the couch. The better decision by far was running around it, and she was at the edge of the seat cushions faster than she could breathe, shaking him to try and get him out of whatever he was dreaming.

Clint had violently awoken from the slumber he’d succumbed to and was now frantically trying to get air in his lungs, lifting himself nearly off the couch in his desperation. His eyes squeezed shut and flew open at a rapid pace, just like when…….

Oh no.

”Clint.”

”There’s a. Gotta find. Window….I’ve — gotta flush him out.”

”Clint, Clint, look at me.”

”He’s in there, he’s  _in_  there, I can feel it.”

”No he isn’t, he hasn’t been in there for over a year. Listen to me. Breathe, calm down, you’re going to be fine. Nothing happened to you.”

Suddenly, she felt him freeze under her hands and he looked at up at her, pupils blown wide in panic, mouth twisted, still seeing terrible things that Natasha had no power to scrub from his memory.

”Natasha?”

She hated that voice. The one where almost all she could hear was “tasha”. That tone where he was questioning everything, wondering what in the hell was going on, where was he, and who was trustworthy. Were his eyes…..turning blue? It had be her imagination. She was remembering too hard.

” _Hey! Listen to me_. You’re in New York. You’re at  _home_ , and you were having a dream.”

”I wasn’t, I — Fury was there, and I shot him. I shot a bunch of other guys too, I remember it, I….” He sat up even further. “Helicarrier. There was one of those, and - oh God, Tasha, what did I do? Why couldn’t I stop?” Cracks were everywhere in his voice and it tied Natasha’s guts up so tightly that she wanted to punch out a wall.  


_“What did Loki do to you?”_

_”I — nothing, I just….” You moron. He took_ you _. He took you from me._

”It was a  _dream_ , do you hear me? A dream. You couldn’t help anything that happened back then, but you’re  _you_ now. No one’s holding anything against you, and you’re a good guy. You hear me? A  _good guy_.” Clint looked like he hardly believed her, but sank back onto the cushions blinking aimlessly, blankly up at the ceiling. Moving her hand from his wrists to the side of his face, Natasha brushed her thumb lightly over his temple, trying desperately to send feelings of assurance into his head.

She’d never been good at tender. Being tender at  _anything_  was not one of her many talents, but she could try. For Clint, she could try. He’d done so much for her, before that the least she could do was show something that he didn’t have to pick out of her face or her voice.

_"Love is for children; I owe him a debt."_

The words tasted strange now. Sure enough, she owed many a debt to him, but love was a lot wider than she’d thought. Love was taking care of people and putting their needs before yours. Steve had taught her a lot about that, and so had Pepper. But love was too wide for anything in her life; it meant too many things. Her life was different than normal, and she could hardly apply too many normal descriptions to it.

”A dream, right. Just a dream.”

”Yes.”

”You sure? You know that?”

”Yes, I’m sure. You can go back to sleep; nothing’s going to hurt you.” It really was like talking to a child. But the simpler things seemed to work, and Clint leaned a little into her hand. Just a little. One more doubtful, sweat-sheened glance met a face of stark, pale surety. Natasha showed him only the things she needed him to see. Nothing else. Not right now. He knew her better than anyone, but she still had the best poker face around no matter what anyone knew.

For a second Natasha debated getting him a sleeping pill, but the idea that if he had nightmares again and couldn’t get out of them dashed the prospect right away. Smoothing down his pillow-rumpled hair before getting up, the redhead squeezed his hand and gave him one last steady look.

”You’re a good guy. Nothing is going to work its way into your head that you don’t want anymore. Just go back to sleep. Everything is gonna be ok when you wake up. Trust me.” Clint nodded haltingly a couple times before shoving his face into the back cushions. Natasha wandered into the kitchen and leaned over the sink, trying her best not to cry. (Turns out, she does pretty well.)

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt


End file.
